Merging Novel Lore Within Game Lore

[Deleted]

I must confess this is something that kinda bugs me...I enjoy the Warcraft games and lore to a degree but I don't know why Blizz insist on making outside work (such as novels/comics) cannon within the lore of a game! It isolates a large player base who follow the games as we're suddenly thrown characters that we have no clue about unless we cough up more money and buy other products. Fair enough, publish as many Warcraft novels as you want but it kinda sucks when your forced to a read a rather badly written book just to completely follow the story within the game!

[Herecius]

Given that said characters appear in the game and do things (as you pointed out), wouldn't that count as 'merging novel lore within game lore,' or are you suggesting we, as players, go about witnessing and taking part in all the crazy crap that has been going on in the novels?

Frankly, I'd rather see new stories in WoW, than rehash Knaak's funtime adventure club stories.

[Deleted]

I'd prefer new characters in WoW to be created within WoW and have their story told within game...Any novels about Warcraft should be considered non-cannon IMO

[snark^]

Do that though and your risk heading towards the various officially multiple differing versions of canon as found with Star Wars... G canon, C canon, S canon, WTF? canon, et al... Read up on SW's Official levels of canon about halfway down http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocron

Personally I don't read EFP books (gave up on them after Forgotten Realms/Dragonlance) and the game is the sole source of canon SFAIC.

[Deleted]

Do that though and your risk heading towards the various officially multiple differing versions of canon as found with Star Wars... G canon, C canon, S canon, WTF? canon, et al... Read up on SW's Official levels of canon about halfway down http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocron

Personally I don't read EFP books (gave up on them after Forgotten Realms/Dragonlance) and the game is the sole source of canon SFAIC.

Feel a n00b but whats EFP & SFAIC?

[Wonderboy]

Knaaks drivel about what can hardly be called warcraft (more accurately "The adventures of Ginger McAwesomemage") should be kept as far from WoW as possible. I can see it now, there is only one class (mage) and all NPCs are Krasus asking for help with some infinitely powerful demon lord, which you solo of course.

[Lyvefire]

Disagree entirely, out of game reinforcement is what makes characters have personality. Garrosh was developed pretty much entirely in game and I severely hope this is never repeated, he came out looking like a schizophrenic. (a new personality every time we meet him)

I do think some of the very major events should at least have books in game to explain them though, a book describing Varians return to the throne would've smoothed the transition a lot.

[Overmind the 3rd]

Feel a n00b but whats EFP & SFAIC?

You aren't alone. I'm rather puzzled.

[Deleted]

Disagree entirely, out of game reinforcement is what makes characters have personality. Garrosh was developed pretty much entirely in game and I severely hope this is never repeated, he came out looking like a schizophrenic. (a new personality every time we meet him)

I do think some of the very major events should at least have books in game to explain them though, a book describing Varians return to the throne would've smoothed the transition a lot.

Ermm...Thrall, Arthas, Cairne, Sylvannas, etc all had character development within game...

[seam]

Do that though and your risk heading towards the various officially multiple differing versions of canon as found with Star Wars... G canon, C canon, S canon, WTF? canon, et al... Read up on SW's Official levels of canon about halfway down http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocron

I like taking everything as canon than reading something and thinking "Hrmm, is this S or C cannon??" x_X

[mordale]

imo make a wc4 and shove all the books/manga/comics into it.
that ought to make for a metric shit ton of of campaign.

[Ashareth]

SFAIC seems to be an acronym for So Far As I'm Concerned.
No idea about EFP but it probably designate all the novels and contents that are outside game's lore.

[Deleted]

Ermm...Thrall, Arthas, Cairne, Sylvannas, etc all had character development within game...

Thrall, after the cancelling of the Warcraft Adventures game, was developed on... a novel. All of his background was written on the Lord of the Clans novel.

That's what the novels are for, for background story. Thing that is simply impossible to do on a MMO genre.

Heck, characters like Tirion were created on the novels.

[snark^]

Apologies for the raging acronymphomania. I've been posting on various webforums and usenet newsgroups since 1995 now and I've picked up a lot of idiosyncrasies.

EFP: Extruded Fantasy Product - a term that has been commonly used on rec.arts.sf.written over the past 10 years or so [originating post: http://groups.google.ca/group/rec.ar...?dmode=source]. It's a term used to describe the (lack of) quality of books which are churned out in huge numbers to cash in on a particular franchise.

SFAIC: So Far As I'm Concerned

[Deleted]

Disagree entirely, out of game reinforcement is what makes characters have personality. Garrosh was developed pretty much entirely in game and I severely hope this is never repeated, he came out looking like a schizophrenic. (a new personality every time we meet him)

Exactly. Heck, I hope that the Shattering novel explains the changes with Garrosh.

[wushootaki]

Disagree entirely, out of game reinforcement is what makes characters have personality. Garrosh was developed pretty much entirely in game and I severely hope this is never repeated, he came out looking like a schizophrenic. (a new personality every time we meet him)

I do think some of the very major events should at least have books in game to explain them though, a book describing Varians return to the throne would've smoothed the transition a lot.

This was a book.....



















....a COMIC book

lulz

[Lyvefire]

Ermm...Thrall, Arthas, Cairne, Sylvannas, etc all had character development within game...

...

There is a distinct difference between starting in Wow and developing in Wow. I would also argue none of these characters have actually experienced meaningful changes in Wow with the sole exception of Sylvanas come Cataclysm.

The fact of the matter is characters that begin and are developed solely through Wow tend to be unbelievable or shallow. There is a reason Malfurion had a novel dedicated to him prior to his return.

[Deleted]

....a COMIC book

Which strongly affected the dynamics of a player's faction.

Metzen is a comic book fanboy, after all.

[DarthMuffin]

Do that though and your risk heading towards the various officially multiple differing versions of canon as found with Star Wars... G canon, C canon, S canon, WTF? canon, et al... Read up on SW's Official levels of canon about halfway down http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocron

Personally I don't read EFP books (gave up on them after Forgotten Realms/Dragonlance) and the game is the sole source of canon SFAIC.

The Star Wars system really isn't that bad. For one thing, S and N generally apply to very old material or games with different endings. The vast majority of published works are all canon. As far as I'm concerned, I also prefer them to outright label old and incoherent material as secondary canon or non-canon than remain silent and do major retconning without telling us. Browse the wowwiki discuss pages and see how much virtual ink is spilt on trivial debates and inconsistencies that would have been cut short if Blizzard had just told us "Warcraft 2 is no longer canon, the novels are".

[Deleted]

I don't mind 'backstories' been told in other mediums of characters already introduced via the game BUT not characters born from comics then planted in the game for players to think "Who the heck is he/she?" and left bewildered